I shifted a little and looked over my shoulder at her.
“Are you willing to try?” I asked her, a challenge in the question.Come on, tough girl, show me some grit.
We stared at each other for a full thirty seconds before she nodded stiffly.
Alright. Game on.
We’d been talking pretty loud and I heard the rest of the girls shifting to pay attention to our conversation.
The new girl in Callie’s cell has been crying on and off, but no alien had come to dole out electroshock therapy, so I’d figured the shark assholes didn’t care anymore now that we’d left earth. I hadn’t gotten around to asking her name, so I could tell her to shut up. None of us had bothered after the first few hours of no punishment. There had been more introductions while I was out and Patty had filled me in, but I’d been miserable and ignored her.
“How are you gonna get out of the cage? You gonna manifest destiny yourself outside?” Patty asked me, poking her finger from her free hand into my arm.
Now, do I just come out and say I was a huge monster with big teeth, hulk strength and I was going to wrench the bars apart and slaughter the crew? Or do I let them wait and see? I mean, we were already on an alien ship. What’s one more ‘monsters are real’ revelation?
Patty wouldn’t blink. Hell, the truth would probably motivate her to get everyone on board with my spree killer plan.
I lifted our joined hands and stared at them, then looked at Patty’s face.
She was thinner than she needed to be. Patty had lived a hard life. Harder now that she’d been taken. She deserved the truth, with no hem-hawing around to ease anyone into the fact that monsters were real. We just didn’t have the time and anyway, aliens were real and why not me too?
Still staring into Patty’s sad blue eyes, I held up my free hand in front of her face and shifted it. There was no sound of bones cracking. No Hollywood skin flaking. Just smooth transformation. Soundless and beautiful. It took an instant and from my elbow to my hand was shaggy brown fur over long fingers and black three-inch claws.
“I’m one of the monsters, Pat,” I whispered.
Patty stared at my claws with wide eyes. She dropped my hand she’d been holding. She reached out and touched my changed one, her hand steady. She ran her fingertips along my claws and through my fur, then looked at me and smiled. It was an evil smile. Her eyes had taken on a gleeful glint.
“You gonna kill them all, Jack?” She whispered back.
“Yes.”
“You know, this explains a lot.”
“The snapped neck thing?” One of my better moments. What an asshole. What kind of man beats on a woman, let alone a woman as small as Patty?
“No. The aggressive wild energy I’d always felt around you. Used to scare me, you know, but you always had my back. Never judged me for what I was. I’m not scared anymore. Can’t wait to see you, the real you.” She entwined her fingers in my clawed hand and leaned her head back on my arm.
Well, damn. I might cry. Did we just become best friends?
Well now, she's gone and done it.
I was going to kill them extra hard for fucking with my bestie.
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered. I looked at her and she was staring at my hand in Patty’s, her face pale and mouth slack. She was shaking again.
“Werewolves are real. Aliens are real. This is fucked.” She looked at me and winced. “I mean, not you. Get us out, Amazon wolf lady. Wreck shop. The weird ship has set sail and I’m not gonna freak out now. So cool. Yeah. What’s the plan?”
“Rijitera is what my people call ourselves. Werewolf is so corny,” I corrected with a smile.
Sam laughed nervously and shrugged. “I’ll call you whatever you want if you get me out of this cage.”
I looked out at the other girls and there was fear, sure, but also hope. Better the monster you know, I guess. This went way better than I’d figured it would go. And they say women are weak.
Bullshit.
Men would be screaming at me, calling me monster and shit. Making committees and taking votes for burning me at the stake while they sat in their cages.
“So what’s the plan, Amazon?” Callie said, standing up and waving at me to get on with it. There she is. I’d known there was a badass hiding behind all that fear and grief.
